Technical Field
The present invention relates to an engine starter for starting an engine.
Background Art
In a conventional engine starter for starting an engine, the engine starter starts the engine in a state where the engine is stopped. Therefore, a pinion gear provided in the engine starter is engaged to a ring gear in a state where the ring gear provided in the engine starter is not rotated. However, in a recent system in which an idling operation is stopped in order to reduce a fuel cost, there has been a case in which the pinion gear is engaged to the ring gear, even when the ring gear is rotated, in order to ensure a restart capability of the engine.
For example, when the idling operation is just stopped and a restart requirement is inputted in a state where the engine is not stopped yet, or when it is required that an operation time is reduced in a state where a stopping mode of the engine is shifted to a restarting mode, the ring gear is previously engaged to the pinion gear while the ring gear is rotated. In this case, in order to engage the pinion gear to the ring gear while the ring gear is rotated, there has been a method in which the pinion gear is pushed, and the pinion gear is engaged to the ring gear when a difference between the number of revolutions of the pinion gear and the number of revolutions of the ring gear is less than a predetermined value.
Moreover, there has been a possibility in which a large impact is caused when the engine is reversely rotated and the pinion gear is engaged to the ring gear. Therefore, there has been a submitted engine starter in which the rotation-start timing of a motor provided in the engine starter is delayed by using a switch which can perform a control operation by which the rotation-start timing of the motor is delayed, and the impact is avoided by avoiding the engagement of the pinion gear and the ring gear when the engine is reversely rotated (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).
Moreover, there has been a submitted engine starter in which an impact attenuator is provided on a reduction mechanism of the engine starter in order to absorb an impact caused by an engagement of a pinion gear and a ring gear, whereby the impact caused by the engagement of the pinion gear and the ring gear is absorbed (for example, refer to Patent Document 2).